The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: on the lions! Seek not to fly or I kill you!"
Pale and with clenched fists he quivered like a harp whose strings are
about to burst. Suddenly sobs stifled him, and he sank down upon his
hams.
"Ah! forgive me! I am a scoundrel, and viler than scorpions, than mire
and dust! Just now while you were speaking your breath passed across
my face, and I rejoiced like a dying man who drinks lying flat on the
edge of a stream. Crush me, if only I feel your feet! curse me, if
only I hear your voice! Do not go! have pity! I love you! I love you!"
He was on his knees on the ground before her; and he encircled her
form with both his arms, his head thrown back, and his hands
 Salammbo |